August 30, 2000
Dear ENY/ACRL Members,
The summer seems to slip past faster each year and this year many are asking, "what summer?" I am sure Suzy Szasz Palmer, program chair, and members of the program committee will agree with that sentiment. They have been especially busy putting together a conference in less time than usual. I hope you have had a chance to review the fall conference announcement and have registered to attend (http://www.enyacrl.org/conff00.html). It promises to be a terrific program at Hamilton College and I look forward to seeing you there.
One of my duties as ENY/ACRL President is to complete and submit to ACRL by mid-August the ACRL Chapter Annual Report. The report is now posted on the ENY/ACRL web site for your review. http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/acrl//annrpt990.html
Please note that the date of incorporation for ENY/ACRL is July 7, 1999. I did not have that information at my disposal when needed, but the form will be corrected.
Suzy Szasz Palmer and I represented ENY/ACRL at the Chapter Councils meeting at ALA in Chicago on July 9th. The meeting allowed us the opportunity to more closely engage with ACRL leadership. I took the opportunity at this meeting to impress upon ACRL the need for a more realistic synchronization of timetables for Chapters and ACRL. The current system for applying for ACRL Initiative Funds and/or ACRL Officers Speakers Bureau impedes participation by ENY/ACRL. The proposals must be submitted more than a year in advance, well beyond when our chairs, programs, sites or dates can be determined on the local level.
Despite all of the blank spaces on the proposal, Suzy requested an ACRL speaker for the spring 2001 conference. We seem assured of Althea Jenkins as our keynote speaker though the program planning details are just beginning to be brought into focus. The other good news is that LeMoyne College has offered to host our spring conference on May 21, 2001.
On another positive note, we seem to be among the few chapters that have completed the incorporation process. According to an ACRL information sheet, we are only one of 6 chapters that have incorporated as of June 2000. You may also be interested to know that 26 chapters are part of their state association and 5 chapters were still in the process of incorporating.
The ENY/ACRL Board of Directors are each working on revising their part of the Officer's Handbook to bring it into compliance with changes required by incorporation and to accommodate the effects of a May conference schedule. The past-president, president and vice-president are charged with submitting revisions to the entire Board this fall and the remaining Board members will do the same by the spring Board meeting.
See you at Hamilton College in October,
Barbara Norelli
For the full description of the conference, please go to http://www.enyacrl.org/conff00.html
Over the summer, we registered an account to move our web site, www.enyacrl.org, to US InterSpace Internet Services, a commercial web server provider. As a non-profit .org, we pay only $11 per month for this service. The advantage of moving to a commercial server is that any members of the Communications Committee can have authorized passwords to update files. Once everything is in place, we can divide the work load, while still keeping appropriate control over format and content. We will no longer be tied to administrative rules and authorizations required by individual ENY/ACRL members' institutions.
Most of the work of making the transfer has fallen on Michael Engle's shoulders, as I have had to rely on his expertise to move our enyacrl.org domain from the Cornell server to the new server. (Thank you, Michael!) The move should be complete before long. In any case, the change should be transparent to you, the users. The enyacrl.org domain name is independent of the server it resides on.
Our new US InterSpace account includes a majordomo e-mail discussion group. Linda Whang of the University at Binghamton is willing to moderate if no one else steps forward, but I would like to announce an open opportunity to launch, moderate, and administer the ENY/ACRL discussion group at the new server. Wouldn't that look great on a resume? If you are interested, please contact Steve Black, Communications Chair, at blacks@mail.strose.edu.
Thank you,
Steve Black, Communications Chair
Kaye Figlioli received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship.
Jean Root Mahalov, Assistant Library Director and College Archivist, received $4,576 from the New York State Discretionary Grant Program for Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials. The funds will be used for preservation microfilming of the College of Saint Rose student newspaper and student literary publications.
Circulation Clerk Bridget Bittle left in early August for the job of office manager for a firm in NYC. We will sorely miss her buoyant personality and her unique sense of humor. Joyce Elliott joined us in late August and is already proving herself to be a valuable addition to our staff.
Part time evening clerk Cori Kuklinski received her LPN this June and quickly got a job in one of our local hospitals. We wish her the best of luck. Her position will be filled soon.
The renovations of parts of Hudson Hall to become home for the library have started. So far the work is on schedule and we will move into our new facility in December.
The library has received an improvement of instruction grant to help faculty integrate information literacy into their courses. We are developing a web guide to research, a questionnaire for students to assess their knowledge of our library and information literacy, and are working with 3 faculty members directly to help them integrate information literacy into their classes.
Our director, Barbara Liesenbein, has been awarded the 1990-2000 SUNY Chancellor's Award For Excellence In Professional Service. In just 5 years she has lead the library through a complete automation of all services, increased the staff's visibility on campus, established a library liaison program with faculty, and has provided off campus access to the library's databases. Congratulations Barbara.
Margaret (Peg) Palmiere joined Nylink on August 28 as Business Manager. Peg will be responsible for overseeing all business office operations. She comes to Nylink from the New York State Speech-Language-Hearing Association where she served as Executive Director. She holds an M.B.A. from Union College in Schenectady.
Donna Dixon joined Nylink on September 5 as OCLC Services Representative. She will be working closely with Nylink members to find the best OCLC solutions to meet their needs. Prior to joining Nylink, Donna was a Human Resources Consultant at the McDonald's Corporation. She is currently pursuing her M.L.S. at the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy.
Lauren Pinsley has been promoted to Senior Staff Associate, OCLC Services Manager. Lauren will be leading Nylink's support of the following OCLC service areas: Collections and Technical Services, Resource Sharing and Reference.
Lynne Kraus has been promoted to Senior Liaison Officer and will continue supporting OCLC Collections and Technical Services.
The second annual Nylink Information Showcase will take place on Tuesday, September 26, 9 a.m.-4 p.m, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Librarians and other information professionals will have the opportunity to meet leading vendors and information providers, and to learn about their products and services during half-hour Speaker Sessions held throughout the day. Visit the Nylink Web site at http://nylink.suny.edu to register for this free event and to view the current list of exhibitors.
At the ENY/ACRL Fall Conference on October 2, Nancy Steele and Tatiana Sahm will present a poster session on "The ABC's of eBooks," and Jon Penn will offer a session on "OCLC's Full Text Option: Electronic Delivery to the Desktop Using Existing ILL Workflows."
Nylink's Annual Membership Meeting will take place November 16-17 in Syracuse at the Radisson Plaza-The Hotel Syracuse. Look for details at Nylink's Web site (http://nylink.suny.edu) and in upcoming Nylink mailings.
Professor Daniel Rizzo, Head of Technical Services, retired from Coulter Library in August 2000. Dan had been with the college since 1966---first as Periodicals Librarian, then 15 years as Chair of the Library, and as head of Technical services since 1988. His wife, Gail, also retired in August from her position as Interlibrary Loan Clerk.
Professor Jeffrey Harr joined Coulter Library in August as Technical Services Librarian. Jeff previously was a librarian at SUNY Cortland where he supervised the Cataloging & Acquisitions Departments. He also developed and taught courses in Cortland's Computer Applications program.
An article written by Professor Frank Doble, Chair of Coulter Library, was published in the February 2000 issue of the Melville Society Abstracts. The title of the article is "Melville & Mariner's Tonga: new evidence from 'Polynesia' ".
In June, Sarah Burns, Assistant University Librarian for Instructional Services, co-presented a session at the LOEX of the West conference in Bozeman, Montana with her colleague, Rebecca Albrecht. Their session was entitled "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Negotiating Information Literacy and Information Overload with Incoming Students." The session covered the development and implementation of a new library instruction program for students taking UNV 101: Freshman Seminar.
Nancy M. Heller retired from her position as Director of Library Services on September 30, 2000. Before becoming director in 1986, she had served as Technical Services Librarian from 1980. She will be continuing as a trustee of the Capital District Library Council.
Barbara L. Walton, who has been at Begley Library since 1980 and had served as Head of Public Services since 1985, became Director on October 1, 2000. She has been an active member of ENY/ACRL since 1985 and was the local arrangements chair of the Spring Conference held at SCCC.
David S. Moore, Technical Services/Systems Librarian since 1995, has been awarded a five-year career appointment effective September 1, 2000.
For the second year Begley Library has received funding from the Smachlo Foundation to purchase print and instructional media materials to support SCCC's Early Childhood Education program. This year's allocation was $2,000.
The first floor of Begley Library was recarpeted in August during a two-week period when the library was closed. The carpeting contractor successfully used stack-movers to move the collection.
The spacing between the stacks is now ADA compliant. The reference area also has been reconfigured. The reference desk now faces the front entrance of the library and a u-shaped area for public access computers has been created. The library received Campus Master Plan funding to purchase additional computer carrels and new furniture for the library's conference room.
Barbara Doyle-Wilch joined Lucy Scribner Library in August as College Librarian. Barbara came to Skidmore College from Augustana College in Illinois where she was Dean of Academic Services. She became a member of ENY/ACRL during her first month at Skidmore!
The Van Wagenen Library at SUNY Cobleskill has gone through several changes this spring and summer.
Stephan Macaluso, Reference Librarian - Distance Education presented along with Coleen Macaluso, St. Peter’s School, NY "Streaming Video From The Classroom: Techniques And Solutions" at MST 2000 - Math, Science, Technology Educators Conference Binghamton, NY on August 7, 2000.
Christopher Raab, Electronic Resources Librarian received a 2000 NYLA Academic & Special Libraries Section/Ridley's Book Bindery Student Internship Grant for $1,000 to fund a library school graduate student intern at the Sojourner Truth Library.
Wayne Miller, Special Collections librarian, wrote a successful grant proposal for the 2000/2001 NYS DiscretionaryGrant Program for Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials. The $2,693 grant will fund a project to clean, process and store the McClellan Map Collection of 200+ maps, drawings, and plans relating to the history of the Champlain Valley.
Carla Hendrix was one of five Plattsburgh faculty/administrators invited to attend the Asheville Institute on General Education--a week long institute designed for teams from colleges & universities to learn about and work on revisions to general education programs. She was the only librarian out of the 100+ participants. Carla is also serving as the Chair of the Middle States Accreditation Study Team on Location at Plattsburgh. She attended her first NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group) conference this year and recommends the conference to anyone involved in serials.
Peter Graham, University Librarian, was a member of the Middle States Association accreditation team visiting Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC, in early April. Peter attended the CEDARS Advisory Board meeting in England on June 14. On the following days, he attended the joint JISC/CNI conference on "Bringing Coherence to Networked Information Services," and shared a panel presentation with Cliff Lynch, CNI's Executive Director, on digital preservation issues. In addition, Peter wrote the chapter "Issues in Digital Archiving" for the book Preservation: Issues and Planning, edited by Paul N. Banks and Roberta Pilette (Chicago: ALA, 2000).